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"Holders of about $700 million of Islamic bonds issued by Abu Dhabi-listed Dana Gas have submitted a restructuring plan to the company’s management, a committee for the holders said on Wednesday. The sukuk are due to mature this year but Dana has refused to redeem them on the grounds that changes to Islamic financial practice in recent years make them unlawful in the United Arab Emirates - a claim which the holders reject. Dana argues that the sukuk’s mudaraba structure - a form of investment management partnership - has become obsolete since 2007 when the company originally issued the debt. At that time the structure was common but Dana says many of its features have been discredited."

"“Baseload” is a loaded term these days.Prior to this, it was merely meaningless outside of utility circles. Baseload refers to a minimum level of demand for electricity and the types of power plants that tend to stay switched on most of the time to supply it. These have historically been nuclear or coal-fired plants, because their running costs were low.In recent years, though, they’ve been supplanted in many cases by natural-gas plants and renewables, which also tend to reduce power prices overall. The Department of Energy lately is very into pushing market changes that support those old “baseload” plants – which just happen to either burn coal or employ lots of people."

"Qatar plans more U.S. investments as it seeks to diversify its assets further as a diplomatic standoff with its Gulf neighbors continues.

The Qatar Investment Authority, which was created to handle the windfall from the world’s largest liquefied natural gas export base, will spend most of what remains of its $45 billion investment target on infrastructure in the U.S., Chief Executive Officer Sheikh Abdullah Bin Mohammed Bin Saud Al Thani said in Doha Wednesday. The fund, which is also looking for technology and healthcare assets, has invested more than half of the money so far, he said.

“For a long-term investor like us having to liquidate some of your assets with asset prices at the bottom is the worst-case scenario,” he said. “How can you develop a global portfolio strategy when you are faced with uncertainty? The answer is diversification. Diversify your investment by region, diversify by investing in all sectors.”"

"Shares of Saudi Arabia’s top food producers, Savola and Almarai, fell on Wednesday after Savola said it was selling a small stake in the dairy maker, while Qatar’s bourse closed at a 52-month low as foreign funds continued to exit.

The Riyadh index fell 0.3 percent with Savola declining 1.8 percent to 46.55 riyals, after initially surging to an intra-day high of 49.60 riyals in the opening minutes of the session.

Savola said it was selling a 2 percent stake in Almarai for 1.12 billion riyals ($308 million) through an accelerated book-building process, with 16 million shares on offer at 70 riyals each."

"Saudi Arabian food maker Savola Group, the country’s largest food products company, said on Wednesday that it is selling a 2 percent stake in Almarai, the Gulf’s largest dairy company for 1.12 billion riyals ($307.6 million). The sale was conducted through an accelerated bookbuilding process, which will cut Savola’s stake in Almarai to 34.52 percent from 36.52 percent, it said, adding that it will use the proceeds of the sale for general corporate purposes. Savola said that completion of the deal to sell 16 million shares at a price of 70 riyals per share and receipt of the proceeds remained subject to the execution of the trades and the completion of the settlement."

Abdul Kadir Hussain, a Dubai-based fund manager who weathered the emirate’s near default almost 10 years ago, has been plotting the average credit risk of emerging-market bonds against the extra yield investors demand to hold debt in the Arab world.

The two have been converging, which means the potential reward for holding riskier developing-nation bonds has almost vanished when compared with Middle Eastern debt, said Hussain, the head of fixed income at Arqaam Capital Ltd."

"Like a retailer whose mid-season sale shades into an end-of-season clearance, and then into pre- and post-Christmas discount drives, OPEC's production cuts are becoming less an exception than the norm.

The latest reductions were pushed through by the Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries and several other producers last November. They'll now be extended by at least three months from their planned end next March and possibly into the second half of 2018, people familiar with the matter told Javier Blas, Wael Mahdi and Grant Smith of Bloomberg News.

It's not hard to see why. A sharp recovery over the past three months has done little more than bring crude prices back to where they were when the cuts were first agreed upon. Curtailing output is meant to lift prices, not leave them standing still -- but maybe another crack at starving the market will succeed."